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After criminal allegations against several public school teachers in the area, administrators and taxpayers are giving extra attention to a 2011 state law, which added crimes that will automatically cost school employees their jobs upon conviction.

The law expanded the list of crimes that permanently disqualify people from school employment. It also imposed a 10-year ban from school employment on anyone convicted of a first-, second-, or third-degree felony, while anyone convicted of first-degree misdemeanors is barred for five years.

Anyone with two convictions of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is barred for three years. The law also requires school employees to inform administrators within 72 hours of fresh arrests or convictions on charges that can result in a school-employment ban.

Lsst Monday, the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board took an additional step to try to weed out lawbreakers working in schools. The board unanimously approved a motion that school district employees must renew employment clearances every three years.

The motion followed the arrest of Stephen Stahl, the wrestling coach and dean of students at Coughlin High School, on a charge he had sex with a 16-year-old student in 2004, and a guilty plea from Karen Block, a teacher at Solomon Plains Junior High School, to an animal-cruelty offense.

Board member Christine Katsock introduced the motion and expressed concerns that board members were not informed of Stahl's prior arrests when he was promoted in December from a teacher to the high school administrator in charge of student discipline.

"Things are falling through the cracks and being ignored, and it is our children who are suffering because of it," she said.

In June 2009, a judge in York County sentenced Stahl to 72 hours to six months in prison for drunken driving, records show. Stahl was charged with drunken driving in 1995 and harassing a fellow teacher in 2007.

Under the Pennsylvania School Code, all applicants for employment in public and private schools are subject to following three background checks: a state police criminal records check, Department of Public Welfare child-abuse history clearance and federal criminal history check.

The state began requiring criminal background checks for prospective school employees in 1986. But state law does not require additional background checks in the future to learn if a school employee was arrested after being hired.

When the new law went into effect in 2011, school employees were required to inform administrators of certain prior crimes requiring disclosure. The new law also requires the disclosure of arrests on certain charges within 72 hours, and the superintendent can force an employee to submit to a current history background if there is a reasonable belief that an employee was arrested or convicted of an offense that requires disclosure.

But school officials can still remain in the dark about arrests and crimes if an employee withholds information, school district solicitor Raymond Wendolowski said. Requiring all school district employees to renew employment clearances every three years is a proactive way to discover if any employee has any arrests, not just the arrests that require disclosure, Wendolowski said.

The practice to require the renewal of employment clearances has been adopted by health care facilities, colleges and Catholic dioceses, Katsock said, adding it would help the district to become "aware of a potentially unsafe situation."

The district suspended Stahl without pay after learning he was going to be charged. Block, a program specialist in English as a Second Language at Solomon Plains Junior High School, has been placed on paid administrative leave.

Wendolowski said confidential personnel requirements prevent him from commenting further on the decision about Block. The 2011 law does not appear to apply to Block's case because she was charged with and pleaded guilty to a second-degree misdemeanor.

But school districts have flexibility to fire employees, even for crimes that don't automatically result in an employment ban, Wendolowski said. School officials must report to the state Department of Education any certified employee who is formally charged or convicted of a crime of moral turpitude or an offense requiring mandatory suspension or revocation of certification.

The state Professional Standards and Practices Commission can revoke certification of a school employee for a crime of moral turpitude, which typically involves deception, lying or fraud. Also anyone - a parent, colleague, principal or student - can lodge a formal complaint against a certified school employee with the state Professional Standards and Practices commission.

Wendolowski said he needs additional information to determine if Stahl was required to disclose his 2009 conviction for driving under the influence. Two convictions of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs results in a three year ban from school employment, but Stahl entered the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program based on admission to driving under the influence in 1996. The ARD program enables the expungment of charges.

In 2008, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., then a Luzerne County judge, approved Stahl's admission into the ARD program again, this time for harassment offenses. Stahl was charged with two third-degree misdemeanor counts of harassment in 2007 and admitted to harassing Jill Chapin, a district teacher who had ended a romantic relationship with Stahl, with repeated calls to her cellphone.

Jeff Ney, a teacher at Solomon Plains Elementary School and president of the Wilkes-Barre Area teachers union, said he agrees with the school board's desire to make schools safer with more background checks. But he expressed concerns about how the district will administer a policy requiring a three-year renewal of background clearances and whether the district will require teachers to pay for the additional checks. The cost for checks from the state police, state Department of Public Welfare and FBI is almost $50.

Ney suggested a policy in which a current district employee fills out an out an application and submits to fresh clearance checks when seeking a promotion. Currently, employees don't have to do that when seeking promotions, he said.

mbuffer@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2073, @cvmikebufferLauren Harrington-Cooper, 31, resigned from Wyoming Valley West School District, charged in December and January with having sex with two male high-school students and making inappropriate contact with two other high school boys.

Edward Evans, 33, suspended without pay by Hanover Area School District, charged in January with institutional sexual assault for offenses involving a male student.

Lisa Barrett, 48, resigned from Wyoming Area School District, sentenced in January to one year in federal prison for embezzling more than $59,000 from her union while serving as union president.

Karen Block, 55, on paid administrative leave from Wilkes-Barre Area School District, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty for putting bowls of antifreeze around her property to poison cats.

Stephen Stahl, 47, suspended without pay from Wilkes-Barre Area School District, charged last week with having sex with a 16-year-old student in 2004.

A 2011 Pennsylvania law added crimes that will automatically cost school employees their jobs upon conviction.

A permanent ban from school employment in the state is imposed if convicted of crimes that relate to the following:

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